More red ink for Vantage Drilling

Offshore driller Vantage Drilling posted a net loss for the last quarter of 2016 amid low jack-up and deepwater rig utilization. 

The driller, with a fleet of three drillships and four jack-up drilling rigs, on Thursday reported a net loss of approximately $41.1 million for the three months ended December 31, 2016, as compared to the Predecessor reporting a net loss of approximately $8.8 million for the three months ended December 31, 2015.

To remind, upon emergence from the company’s Chapter 11 restructuring on February 10, 2016, Vantage adopted fresh-start accounting, which resulted in the company becoming a new entity for financial reporting purposes. Therefore, the company’s financial position and results of operations for the period before February 10, 2016, are attributed to “Predecessor” while the position and operations after February 10 are attributed to the reorganized “Successor”.

As of December 31, 2016, Vantage had approximately $231.7 million of available cash compared to $241.1 million as of September 30, 2016.

The driller’s revenues for the last quarter of 2016 amounted to $40.41 million, compared to the Predecessor’s revenues of $128.4 million for the same period of 2015.

During the quarter, the jack-up rig utilization dropped to 39.5%, compared to its Predecessor’s utilization of 64% in the fourth quarter 2015.

When it comes to the company’s deepwater rigs utilization, it also dropped during the fourth quarter of 2016 amounting to 33.3% when compared to the Predecessor’s utilization of 53.4% in the corresponding period of 2015.

Offshore Energy Today Staff